State A VFW Teener Baseball Tournament: Webster shows new complex to state at weekend tourney

August 10, 2007|By John Papendick, American News Sports Editor

For the first time, Webster will get to unveil its new baseball complex to a statewide audience. Bob Wiley Field in Webster - Wiley is a legendary baseball man who is a member of the state baseball hall of fame - is the site for the 2007 State A 15-16 VFW Teener Baseball Tournament today through Sunday in Webster. It is the first state tourney to be played there. Here are today's opening-round games: Parkston vs. Beresford, noon; Madison vs. Sisseton, 2:30 p.m.; Garretson vs. Platte, 5:30 p.m.; and Mobridge vs. Webster, 8 p.m. Saturday's consolation semifinals will be at noon and 2:30 p.m. followed by the semifinals at 5:30 p.m. and 8 p.m. Sunday's games are at 6 p.m. (championship), 3 p.m. (third) and noon (fifth). Parkston is the defending champ. The Webster field was built 2 years ago, thanks to a community-wide effort that was led by more than $100,000 in donations from the Webster Diamond Club as well as help from the city and others. “People here in Webster are excited about hosting this tournament,” said tourney director Chad Hesla. “The hotels have been filling up and people have been volunteering to come out and help at the tourney.” There was a time when teams didn't want to come to Webster to play baseball, said Hesla. “Our old field had a running track going through it,” said Hesla. “It is fun to get teams and tournaments back in Webster. We recently hosted the American Legion regional tournament, and we got a bunch of compliments about the field from visitors.” Improvements continue at the new three-field complex. “This year we put up a couple of batting cages, a crow's nest and a sound system,” said Hesla. “We keep adding a little bit more and more as we get the money. “Our complex has really become a source of pride for our community.” Hesla said the organizational and background work for this weekend's tourney has been divided up by committees. “For example, I know about 15 people have volunteered to help our three-person grounds crew this weekend.” The VFW club and others are helping with the various tasks as well. Even the Minnesota Twins got involved as Webster got $1,000 for a Twins Tournament grant to help host the state tourney. “This weekend is really a community event,” Hesla said. “By just hosting the American Legion regional tournament, we learned what it will take to host this event. This weekend will be on a bigger scale, of course, but we made some adjustments and tweaked some things because of what we learned by hosting that regional.”